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Saturday, August 18, 2012

Swords Against Chaos: Ill Met In Middenheim

As I mentioned on Tuesday, I started running WFRP game last week. This is actually a report for the second session, but after talking to the players we decided that this is possibly going to go longer than I initially thought, so I moved the action to Middenheim. As such, this is sorta the real first session.

Anyway, here are the highlights:

The PCs heard rumors that a notable alchemist hasn't been seen in three months. He is presumed dead and the Graf's taxmen are preparing to raid the to collect. The players decided to get there before them.

One of them cased the joint and discovered that there are a number of guards posted outside the door to see if the guy ever came out. They decided that they would enter the house from the roof of an adjacent house, where they would jump onto the alchemist's balcony.

A trip to the Drowned Rat - the seediest of the seedy bars of Middenheim - revealed that the alchemist was a big fan of ladies of the evening, and was well known in underworld circles. Strangely, no one other than the PCs seemed to be planning to rob his corpse.

As they were thinking of leaving the Rat, a fight broke out between a group of Sigmar worshipers and fundamentalist Ulricites. They took this as a definite sign they should go.

Two PCs who are both named Udo, one is the self-proclaimed King of Beggars and the other is a 'famous' pit-fighter from Altdorf, decided to find a guy to murder for his money in the twisting alleys around the Rat. Their prey ended up being a snotball holigan and supporter of the Ostwald Shitheads. After some fighting, Udo the pit-fighter managed to break the poor guy's neck, but not before giving Udo the beggar a concussion with a fumble. The pit-fighter now wears his scarf. The deed was spotted by a patron of the Rat, but he seemed to approve.

The party set out at night to engage in the larcenous desires. On the way to the house they passed by a large crowd and a bunch of guards. Someone at the head of the crowd was preaching against Sigmar, claiming he was a Chaos demon sent to lead men astray. They decided to move away from this as quickly as possible, cutting through the local cemetery to get to the house.

Only after Radaslav the thief had climbed up to the roof of the neighboring house did he realize he had no rope to lower to his comrades. He quickly made his way to the alchemist's house to see if he could find some rope. What he found was a damp bed sheet that seemed to be covered with some kind of biological fluid. They used it anyway.

The actual house portion of the alchemist's abode was rather spare, though they did find a few coins, a nice painting, and some official robes of the Wizards and Alchemists' Guild.

The real treat lay below, where they found the alchemist's murder-basement. This was filled with strange creatures that appeared to be headless women covered in festering sores. One of these attacked the party, but they were able to slay it without any casualties.

It turns out there was a whole room filled with women's heads in jars. Some of these were meeping horribly, but most were still. Later they found another room filled with the headless-things, and quick thinking by Radaslav killed them all when he ran into the room with all the heads and started destroying the jars.

Overall I think it was a good session, and I look forward to running more WFRP in the City of the White Wolf.